For love and for money: the income gap in marriage

Though the ideal age to marry has long been debated, a study published Tuesday finds it’s the number on your paycheque – not your birth certificate – that better predicts the likelihood of being hitched.

According to the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, 86 per cent of high-income families include a married or common-law couple, compared to 49 per cent of the middle-class and just 12 per cent of the nation’s lowest income earners. This “marriage gap” between the haves and have-nots is of particular concern to researchers because marriage in and of itself creates a powerful economic advantage.

“That’s something I worry about a lot,” said University of British Columbia scholar Marina Adshade, who isn’t affiliated with the report but is a leading expert on the economics of relationships. “If all those (marriage) benefits are being accrued by people who already have high incomes, inequality – in terms of standard of living – is only going to grow.”

To wit, 35 years ago, the share of married couples in the upper class was 70 percentage points higher than in the lowest income quartile, and 27 points more than the middle-class. By 2011, the disparity between the highest and lowest income quartiles had grown to 74 percentage points, while the gap between the upper and middle-class had risen to 37 points.

Source: IMFC

“Across all age levels, income is the predictor as to whether somebody is going to be married or not,” said study co-author Peter Jon Mitchell, senior researcher at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. “But it’s not primarily a public policy problem or something for government to solve. It’s probably more of a cultural issue that speaks to how we understand and ‘do’ marriage.”

Certainly, the “why” of Tuesday’s data analysis is largely speculative. But a number of long-term social trends help fill in the picture, with Mitchell citing the following issues as likely culprits:

Higher income men are more likely to wed higher income women (“like marries like”), which wasn’t the case in the early 1980s;

Inflated expectations around spending requirements for modern weddings;

More women are pursuing post-secondary education and delaying marriage until graduation. This gives less-educated women an initial edge in the marriage market but studies show much higher divorce rates among this early-marrying group, with socioeconomically disadvantaged females being among the least likely demographics to remarry;

Revised societal views of when to marry, and an increasing tendency to wait until all the economic puzzle pieces are in place – something that may not happen for lower income groups.

“Marriage used to be the cornerstone on which you built your life: You got out of high school, got married, then built your career,” explained Mitchell. “Now, younger Canadians see it more as a capstone: obtain education, find steady employment, maybe invest in a house, and then see marriage as an arrival point.”

The full research paper can be seen at imfcanada.org, while a Q&A with Marina Adshade is available below.

Q&A with Marina Adshade, PhD

Dr. Marina Adshade, author of The Love Market

Postmedia News: Why are there significantly fewer low-income Canadians who are married?

MA: “People who are at the lowest income levels are far more likely to have married at an early age and, by the time they’re 24 or 25 – when university-educated people are just starting to get married – their marriages have already ended… So it’s not because they never marry; it’s because they marry and get divorced.”

Postmedia News: How does the “like” marries “like” idea apply here?

MA: “High-income men marry high-income women. In some ways, this has cut low-income women out of the marriage market: the gain from marrying a low-income man is so much lower, so many of them are just opting not to marry… Women don’t want to be married to men who aren’t working, and who put a strain on their own finances.”

Postmedia News: Is marriage any more appealing to the wealthy?

MA: “The economic gains from marriage are much higher when you’re marrying someone who’s high-income than low-income. That means there’s greater incentive for high-income people to marry than for people who are of lower income.”

Editorial note: Further reading on this topic can be found here and here.

Postmedia News: We hear a lot about marriage as an economic advantage. Can you explain?

MA: “There’s a tremendous amount to gain from marriage. It’s cheaper to live as two people together than apart. People who are married, in general, have a higher standard of living than people who are single. People who are married are much healthier. People who are married report being much happier. They live longer. They save better for their retirement years, so they’re less likely to live in poverty as seniors.”

Postmedia News: Given all that, to what extent is the marriage gap a problem?

MA: “If all those benefits are being accrued by people who already have high incomes, inequality – in terms of standard of living – is only going to grow.”

Misty Harris is a nationally recognized journalist known for her stories on social science, consumer trends, demographics, academic studies, and marketing. For more than a decade, her articles have been... read more featured on the front pages of Canada’s top newspapers, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist, Montreal Gazette, The Province, The Leader-Post, The Star-Phoenix, The Windsor Star, and Ottawa Citizen, in addition to such online news hubs as Canada.com.
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